Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Hanged Man: Murder and Tarot

Who Will Remember by C.S. Harris

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This is the 20th novel in the series about a crime solving nobleman in Regency England, and the series continues to go strong. This one is more of a straight up murder mystery – some of the middle novels in the series got a bit wrapped up in French espionage story lines. I would even say this one would actually even be approachable to someone that hadn’t read any other novels in the series – of course, you’d be missing some of the complexity of […]

Murder, Tea and Chinese Food

Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (On a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

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I quite enjoyed the first Vera Wong novel so I was excited to see there was a sequel coming out this month. And yet, I admit I was a little worried going into this novel. Jesse Q. Sutanto has another series that is slightly over the top but for that one, the second novel just took things so over the top, that the premise didn’t work for me and I stopped reading it. I’m happy to say that Vera Wong doesn’t go down that route. […]

“I would shiver the whole night through”

Knife River (2024) by Justine Champine

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When it comes to mysteries, I find the plot to be almost the least interesting thing–as long as it’s not too lazy or derivative or actively insulting to the reader, and fits into the vibes of the story. What I do care about, then, are the vibes–if the vibes are there, if the texture of the story is something I can snag myself on, I don’t really worry about clues or reveals (which I’m bad at predicting anyway). The vibes are pretty immaculate in Knife […]

Shoutout to All You Sally Rand Stans Out There

The Case of the Fan-Dancer's Horse by Erle Stanley Gardner

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Oh it’s been a hot minute since I did a Perry Mason.  Here’s #29, dated 1947.  Diligently reading in order here, at least 50 more to go.  And this was a fun one! OK, a little background here, a fan dancer (Sally Rand being the most famous) could often be considered a classy dancer.  Ostrich plume fans always moving, and you might catch a peek here and there, but no more than that.  They were a burlesque act, but some made it to the big […]

Into the Woods

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

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When 13-year-old Barbara Van Laar disappears from her bunk at the summer camp her family has owned for years, the incident stirs up unhappy memories for her parents and the town at large. Fourteen years earlier, in 1961, her brother Bear had disappeared after being separated from his grandfather during a hike, and he was never seen again. Barbara’s disappearance is relayed in Moore’s text through it’s impact on the people around her, her bunkmate Tracey, a shy girl trying to get through her parents’ […]

“There is nothing under the moon, however fine, that is not subject to corruption.”

Dark Fire: A Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery by C.J. Sansom

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I am a huge fan of mystery novels, especially historical ones sent in Tudor England, so the Shardlake series was a a huge yes for me. Sansom delivers an incredibly well-written and well-researched England set during the reign of Henry VIII. This one, the second in the series, finds hunchback (yes, it’s important to the character) lawyer Matthew Shardlake trying to track down a barrel of Greek Fire promised to Henry by Shardlake’s patron Thomas Cromwell; a barrel that has apparently resulted in the deaths […]



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